The Center for Craft welcomes four Artists in Residence this summer who have transformed our basement Ideation Lab into a place for creating, researching, and exploring craft. This spotlight exhibition features representative work from each of the four artists. 

Artists in Residence receive studio space, access to the Center’s coworking space, and a $10,000 honorarium. In addition to solo studio time, the cohort will have opportunities to explore the resources and organizations that make Western North Carolina a vibrant region for craft.

The artists represent two simultaneous residency programs, the Virginia A. Groot Material Exploration Residency and the WNC Artist in Residency.

2024 Virginia A. Groot Material Exploration Residency 

• Justin Archer (Atlanta, GA)
• c marquez (Taos, NM)

2024 Western North Carolina Artists in Residence

• Nava Lubelski (Asheville, NC)
• Luis A. Sahagun (Asheville, NC)

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Artwork Details

Justin Archer

What is Lost (study)

2023

Hydrostone

Justin Archer uses 3D-printed models to hand-sculpt incomplete yet realistic human forms. The final forms, created from hundreds of wood blocks, mimic a pixelated image. During the residency, Archer will learn new digital and hand-building techniques to explore the questions that arise from the interplay between the two.

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c marquez

125

2024

Tall Tumble Mustard

Living barely on the grid in northern New Mexico, c. marquez creates installations that are inherently impermanent, attached with only tension and gravity (no glue or hardware).  Working almost exclusively with tall tumble mustard, marquez will use this residency opportunity to push the limits of this material and learn new techniques in papermaking and metalsmithing to expand their installation vocabulary.

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Nava Lubelski

Tequila Sunrise

2009

Thread on Stained Canvas

Nava Lubelski combines painting, embroidery, and lacework in ways that acknowledge the potential chaos, frustration, and rebellion often repressed in needlework traditions. Rather than treating stained or ripped textiles as damaged, she instead celebrates these imperfections by using lacework to plug the gaps or embroidery to outline the marks of stains.  During the residency, Lubelski will work on combining stitching techniques and paper collage in a new, large-scale format.

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Luis A. Sahagun

Amuleto no. 2 (soul retrieval)

2024

Gorilla Glue, Charcoal, Paper, Beads, Beeswax, Feathers, Glitter, and Found Objects

Luis A. Sahagun is an artist and ritualist who creates paintings, sculptures, and community gatherings that center healing. During the residency, he will explore the symbolic and ritualistic use of feather mosaics and skin markings among indigenous Mexican cultures, create experimental healing sounds, and continue his long-running project of creating limpia (cleansing) portraits.